The Michael Zordich who zigzagged through cones, high-stepped over obstacles and single-handedly willed the offense to victory in a tug-of-war against the defense during the Penn State football team’s Friday morning workout looked nothing like the clean-shaven boy next door who stared up at you from the 2011 football media guide with a friendly smile.

This Zordich sported a well-coifed goatee, and that coupled with the dark blond locks of curly hair that billowed out from the edges of his gray bandanna gave the senior fullback a rakish, almost piratical, air.

This Zordich wouldn’t have been allowed onto Joe Paterno’s football field.

But there he was on Friday, dancing through drills with the rest of his Penn State teammates as head coach Bill O’Brien and his staff urged them on.

But before you accuse O’Brien of desecrating Penn State tradition, give him a chance. As defensive secondary coach John Butler pointed out —sporting a blue Penn State baseball cap during interviews with reporters after the morning workout — things have changed, but not necessarily for the worse.

“Obviously, Coach Paterno is the most successful football coach in the history of our game, and he had certain rules and regulations that he saw fit for his program,” Butler said. “Coach O’Brien is the new head football coach at Penn State, and he has certain rules and regulations we’re going to adhere to.

“Kids are kids nowadays, and maybe they’re going to want to grow their hair a little longer, and maybe they’re going to want to grow their beard out, but at the same time we all respect the game. We all respect each other. We all respect the people in the community.”

Even the presence of reporters in the Lasch Building at 7 a.m. marked a change from recent policy. The media during Paterno’s later years had no access to practices or conditioning workouts, and most had never seen the players at work in their weight room during the off season.

Friday’s invitation for the media to watch the team’s 5:30 a.m. workout came with breakfast — coffee, fruit and bagels — and O’Brien already has made his assistants available to reporters on several occasions, another departure from the Paterno era.

“I think it’s really important for people to see that these guys are working really hard. We’ve got a great staff here, and a bunch of junior prospects coming in on Saturday,” O’Brien said. “We feel like we’re building something here, we’re just starting, but there’s no light at the end of the tunnel, and we’ve got a long way to go.

“I just wanted to give you guys a chance to see how hard these guys are working.”

The differences don’t stop there. The O’Brien regime has come complete with a new strength training philosophy, a weight room that has been refitted and, of course, a new coaching staff and new playbooks.

But not everything has changed.

For one, the tradition of recruiting players in the Penn State mold remains.

Butler said: “There’s a certain player and certain athlete at Penn State that we’re going to recruit, that they’ve recruited here for years. Athletic. Smart. Tough and dependable.”

If anything, that emphasis on smart, academically inclined football players is now stronger than ever because, as offensive line coach Mac McWhorter observed, O’Brien’s offensive system is “really more intricate than some.”

He added: “But just observing and getting to know the kids, I’ve been very impressed with their blue-collar, hard-nosed work ethic, and they are a bunch of very good students, too, which excites me. Offensive linemen in today’s game, it’s really hard to be productive if you can’t think.”

So, don’t let the longer hair and scruffier chins scare you.

“We’ll represent Penn State with class,” McWhorter promised in his lilting Southern drawl.

Added Butler, “The same core values that have always made Penn State a great academic institution and football program we’re going to continue to adhere to, and our players are still going to be following along in those regards.”

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